


It Always Has Been Fine

by CosmicCove



Series: Just the Three of Us [4]
Category: Epithet Erased (Cartoon)
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, I like exploring Lorelai as a character, It's interesting, She's mean for a reason probably, Sylvie's only mentioned tho, death mention, he still plays an important role though, implied sibling reconnection after fic so there's that!, it doesn't make it right but, jello says she's awful with explaining anything else and I'm just like, that's all im saying, they are sisterssssss, this is a one shot but I might add more?, tw death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23165833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmicCove/pseuds/CosmicCove
Summary: He groaned.  He’d heard all about this girl.  Beartrap said that Lorelia was awful.  “Look, I’m a friend of hers.  I’m just checking in on her.  Things have been difficult for you guys recently.  I just want to make sure-”Lorelai cut him off.  “Nothing has been difficult!” she yelled, “Everything’s fine!  It’s been fine!  It’s always going to be fine and it always has been fine!”orAfter sneaking into their house, Giovanni accidently surprises the wrong sister, and ends up learning that Lorelai might relate more to her sister's struggles than she realizes
Relationships: Lorelai Blyndeff & Giovanni Potage, Lorelai Blyndeff & Molly Blyndeff (Sort of), Molly Blyndeff & Giovanni Potage, Sylvester "Sylvie" Ashling & Giovanni Potage
Series: Just the Three of Us [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1583299
Comments: 9
Kudos: 88





	It Always Has Been Fine

**Author's Note:**

> I hope when we meet Lorelai in the real series she's sort of redeemable because if not, this fic might look awful in hindsight.

Giovanni swooped down from the ceiling, his ideal way of checking in on his favorite minion. He wasn’t the kind of guy to pick favorites when it came to his friends, but Beartrap was very important to him, and he considered her one of his most special minions. So yeah, there was a bit of favoritism. The others sure didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it seemed that the favoritism was mutual. 

“Eep!” the girl screeched. That sure wasn’t like her, but perhaps he had startled her. Beartrap wasn’t hard to startle, though she had since grown used to his spontaneous appearances. It was quite dark too. She looked him up and down. “Who are you?” 

Okay, this wasn’t Beartrap. “Who are _you?_ he retorted. 

The girl stared at him. “I don’t wanna tell you until you tell me your name,” she growled. 

“My name’s Giovanni,” he answered grumpily, “I’m looking for Beartrap.” 

“Well, you’re in the wrong house.” 

Of course she wouldn’t know her by Beartrap. “Maybe you’ll know who I mean if I say, I’m looking for Molly?” he asked. 

“Who are you?” she asked again, emphasizing the are. She took a cautious step back. “What do you want with my sister?” 

He groaned. He’d heard all about this girl. Beartrap said that Lorelia was awful. “Look, I’m a friend of hers. I’m just checking in on her. Things have been difficult for you guys recently. I just want to make sure-” 

Lorelai cut him off. “Nothing has been difficult!” she yelled, “Everything’s fine! It’s been fine! It’s always going to be fine and it always has been fine!” 

“Woah, hey! You don’t want to wake anybody up!” he whispered. 

“No one’s going to wake up. Molly’s working down stairs, and Dad…” she trailed off, took a deep breath, then finished, “Dad’s a heavy sleeper, so he doesn’t hear us.” 

He looked at her. “You want to talk about it?” 

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she muttered, “nothing's wrong.” 

“It doesn’t sound like nothing’s wrong,” he noted. 

Lorelai pushed past him roughly. “Just leave me alone.” 

He rubbed his arm where she had shoved him. “Well, just tell Bear- Molly, if you change your mind.” 

She opened up the door to her bed room, turned to glare at him over her shoulder, and then slammed the door shut. Yeah, Beartrap was right, Lorelai was awful, but maybe not because she was a bad person. He walked down stairs into the store. 

“Beartrap?” he called. 

Molly’s sleepy head perked up and turned to face him. “Boss!” she called back, a grin crossing her face. 

“Night shift again?” he asked. 

She nodded, her smile becoming more strained. 

“Hey, how about you get some sleep and I’ll cover for you tonight?” he asked, “You have school tomorrow?” 

Molly nodded. “But don’t you also have school tomorrow?” she asked. 

“No morning classes,” he informed her, “Plus, I’m not tired. The other blasters and I just pulled off a heist, and I’m still chasing that adrenaline high.” 

She laughed. “Man, I wish I wasn’t working. I would have gone with you.” 

“Not on a school night,” Giovanni pointed out. 

She let out a drawn out, “Come on!” 

“There will be plenty of times for heists when you’re older,” Giovanni pointed out. 

Molly huffed. “I guess,” she mumbled, and then asked, “I thought you guys quit the banzai blasters?” 

“Oh, we did,” he confirmed, “We just haven’t come up with a new name yet, so we still call ourselves the banzai blasters.” 

“How about banzai-er blasters?” Molly suggested. 

“ooh!” Giovanni breathed, “That’s a good one!” He pulled out a notepad, and wrote ‘banzai-er blasters’ under a list titled ‘New Names.’ 

“Who were you talking to?” Molly asked. 

“Oh, you heard that?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Lorelai.” 

“Lorelai saw you?” Molly shouted not so loudly. 

Giovanni nodded. “What’s her deal? All she does is insist everything’s okay.” 

“Yeah,” Molly agreed, “She’s been like that ever since mom died. My dad really got to her. I guess he, like, ingrained a mindset of denial into her? I don’t really know how to describe it. She’s been awful ever since.” 

“I thought you meant awful as in mean,” Giovanni said. 

“She is sort of mean now,” Molly supported his assumption, “She’s super dismissive. She won’t help me when I have a problem because she insists there is no problem. She gets very mean when you point out issues, too. She hits things, sometimes people. She hit our dad once, because I said he was a problem for us, and he came into the room right afterwards. She just smacked him and stormed out, and of course, he didn’t care. He just let her.” Molly sighed. “Boss, it’s kind of scary.” 

“At least she didn’t hit you,” Giovanni offered. 

“Not that time,” she replied softly. 

Giovanni gave her a tight hug. “Things are scary sometimes, but they’ll turn out okay in the end.” 

“I know things will turn out okay for me, but what about her?” Molly asked, “She hasn’t been herself for the past two years. I just want my sister back…” 

“Everyone recovers at their own speed, Beartrap,” Giovanni softly reminded her, “Lorelai will be back to her old self someday.” 

“You really think so?” 

“I know so.” 

Molly laughed. “I hope so!” 

“You’d better get on up to bed,” Giovanni told her. 

“Okay,” Molly complied with a yawn. 

Giovanni listened to Molly footsteps as she trudged up the stairs. He heard her bedroom door open, and then close again, with a squeak and a clunk. Then he heard another noise, not associated with Molly: The jingling of bells, the telltale sign of a customer entering a shop. 

“Welcome to the Blyndeff Toy Emporium, how may I help you?” Giovanni asked. 

“Yeah, whatever,” the man grumbled, “I just need something for my daughter’s birthday.” 

“Oh, how old is she turning?” Giovanni asked. 

“Three, or something,” the man sighed, “Look, just get me a toy. Got a good recommendation?” 

“Teddy bears are a good choice for anyone,” Giovanni advised, “But building blocks are great for a child’s developmental skills, I think.” 

The man scoffed, “You only think they do? Shouldn’t you know what helps kids with what? You work in a toy store!” 

“Look, man, I’m nineteen,” Giovanni pointed out. He clenched his teeth. This guy was so annoying. 

The man groaned, grabbed a nearby toy bunny and tossed it onto the counter. “This will work. She loves rabbits.” 

Giovanni rang it up. “I’m sure she’ll love it,” he added. He finally knew what a “customer service smile” was, because he had one on his face as he carefully placed the bunny in a bag. 

“I don’t care, at least I got something,” the man mumbled, snatching the bag from Giovanni. He continued to grumble to himself as he left the store. 

“I don’t get why people can be so mean to their kids,” a harsh voice said behind Giovanni. 

He turned to see Lorelai sitting on the threshold of the doorway into the shop from the rest of the house. “Why are you here?” he asked her. 

“I live here,” she reminded him, “The real question is why are you here?” 

“I meant why are you still awake,” he clarified, “And I’m still here to cover for your sister.” 

“Okay, whatever,” Lorelai huffed, “I’m awake, and you don’t need to know why. I came out here for some company, but you were helping out a customer and- Why was the guy so mean?” 

“Some people are just mean,” Giovanni answered with a shrug. 

“For no reason?” 

“Yeah,” Giovanni confirmed. 

“But it was like he didn’t even care about his daughter! What kind of father does that?” Lorelai ranted, “Dads should be considerate, and think that their daughters are amazing! Like our dad! Our dad, he… He…” Lorelai trailed off. Her expression morphed from angry to devastated. 

“Are you alright?” Giovanni asked, a sickly feeling building up inside of him. He knew about their dad plenty. 

Tears began running down her face. “Our dad is horrible!” Lorelai admitted, “He doesn’t care! If one of us disappeared, he wouldn’t even notice!” 

Giovanni didn’t know what to do. Should he offer her a hug, or would she push him away again? She pounded her fist down on one of the tables. Okay, no way he was getting near her when she was like this. 

“I’m ready to talk now,” she peeped, her voice surprisingly small. 

“Talk away,” Giovanni allowed. 

“Things have been changing a lot, and I just want it to stop. Did Molly tell you about our mom?” Giovanni nodded yes. “Yeah… After what happened to Mom, our dad just stopped being our dad. At least, it feels like it. He locks himself in his room to make toys. He doesn’t care what we do as long as we leave him alone. I was just going to let him realize we need a dad to take care of us now, but Molly takes it upon herself to support us, and she won’t listen to me when I tell her that our dad will take care of it if she lets him. She doesn’t believe me when I say it’s all okay.” 

“Is it all okay?” 

Lorelai froze, a look of hopelessness on her face as her breath seemed to get stuck in her throat and her eyes cast down to the floor. After a long span of silence, she answered. “No. It’s not okay. I-” She found herself at a loss for words, tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. “What are we going to do?” she asked him, her voice suddenly quiet. 

“You’re going to get back up onto your feet and show the world that no matter what gets thrown at you, you will survive, and you will thrive!” Giovanni told her. 

“I don’t feel like I can.” 

“Aren’t you doing it right now?” he pointed out, “You’re living and healing right now.” 

Lorelai blinked in surprise. “I’m living and healing…” she noted to herself in surprise. 

“You’ve made it so far, why give up now?” he asked her. 

She smiled at him, determination apparent on her face. “I’m not giving up!” 

He gave her a thumbs up and a grin. “You’re going to take charge and get your life back on track, even when it means addressing problems you wish weren’t real!” 

“I’m going to take charge!” Lorelai echoed. 

“And most importantly,” Giovanni added, “When you need help, I need you to tell someone. Your sister has my number, if you need to call me.” 

She nodded dutifully. “Okay!” 

“Now, it’s probably best for you to get back to bed,” he told her. 

“I’ll try,” she muttered. 

Giovanni paused. “Did something wake you up?” he asked, noting her expression of discomfort. 

She shrugged, laughing in spite of herself. “Why not? I already told you everything else.” She sighed. “I keep having nightmares.” 

“Nightmares?” he inquired. 

“About Mom,” she continued, “It was horrible, you know. Molly was with her, and me and our dad, we were… I don’t even remember what we were doing. It doesn’t feel important anymore. I keep having dreams about that phone call. Hearing the news that my mom’s dead over and over. Sometimes it’s even worse. Sometimes it’s both of them. It haunts me.” 

Giovanni sighed. The tales of nightmares were nothing new to him. From Sylvie’s parents to Molly’s nightmares of the very fire that caused the events of her sister’s nightmares, Giovanni was no stranger to the topic. He just wished it wouldn’t happen so often, or that it would at least become easier to talk about eventually. It never did. Not when it was related to trauma. 

“Look, Lorelai. I don’t have all the answers. I’d try to offer some advice, but I’ve found I’m not so good when it comes to nightmares. But! I do have a friend who’s great at this kind of stuff.” He pulled out one of Sylvie’s cards. Sylvie had been making him carry them around ever since he’d moved in with him, just in case. Giovanni said that it was kind of dumb. He guessed he was wrong. He’d have to apologize to Sylvie later. 

“Dr. Sylvester Ashling. Epithet based therapy,” she read off, “First session is free.” 

“That’s a good friend of mine, and your sister,” Giovanni told her. 

Lorelai looked up. “Has Molly talked to him?” 

“Yeah. Sylvie lets her have as many sessions as she needs, so maybe we can pull some strings for you, too.” 

Lorelai smiled at him sleepily. “Thanks Giovanni,” she chimed, and then yawned. 

“Don’t forget that you can talk to Molly, too. I think you’ll find that you’ve been having very similar experiences, despite your different ways of coping,” Giovanni advised her, “She really does want to reconnect sometime. Get all this icky moping and hitting things stuff out of the way.” 

Lorelai pondered his words for a moment. “Yes, I guess I’ve been coping pretty badly.” 

“You’ll figure it out.” 

“Yeah,” she agreed, yawning again, “I’m going to go to bed now.” 

“Okay, I hope you sleep well,” Giovanni called after her as she left the room. Just then, the bells above the door jingled again. It was going to be a long night. He was glad that Molly wasn’t working her shift tonight.


End file.
